Carillon Communities is a living and learning program where students address big questions important to the world and their own educational path through the use of creative problem solving and teamwork. Carillon Communities is designed to provide more incoming freshman the opportunity to participate in a living and learning program.
Being part of a living-learning community:
Helps make this big campus feel smaller.
Helps students develop a network with other students.
The Carillon Communities:
Provide students an interesting way to satisfy general education requirements and learn approaches for academic success.
Each community is designed around a course that satisfies general education.
Offer a unique introduction to the University including a special Carillon studio course. This course helps students develop a more satisfying and intentional college experience.
Provide opportunities for students to develop an awareness and appreciation of campus resources and policies.
Provide an opportunity to cultivate supportive networks with fellow students and a University professor.
Students working in teams are more likely to make connections with other students and build a sense of community. Also, team work and creative problem solving are one of the top two skills that employers seek in 20-something employees. Faculty value team work and problem solving as important skills for success in college courses and alumni report that participating in a semester long project (like the team projects in Carillon Communities) was one of the most valuable activities of their college experience.
No, the communities are applicable across all majors. The course taken as part of Carillon Communities fulfills general education requirements, part of the University graduation requirement for all majors. Participating in a community that does not match your current or intended major exposes you to a different discipline, while improving your fundamental academic skills, that prepare you for the demanding and changing world.
The Carillon Community courses are General Education courses. All students must complete the General Education Program as part of their degree.
When you accept your Carillon invitation you will choose at least four communities that interest you (you can choose more). When placing you in a community our staff will take into account your interests, class sizes, and submission date.
All newly admitted students register for their courses when they attend one of the mandatory summer orientations. Visit summer orientation to learn more about virtual orientation sessions and availability.
Carillon courses are listed as blended to allow the option for some face-to-face meetings. The face-to-face opportunities will be optional according to your comfort and availability. If you do not attend face-to-face meetings we will provide alternative and equally engaging opportunities online. All Carillon Communities’ courses (your 3-credit community course and the IDEA101 course) are designed to allow you to participate fully online if you choose to do so.
We encourage students to list community choices because of the possibility that they will not receive their first choice. If you only choose one community and are not placed in your first choice you will not be placed in another community, and will not be a member of the Carillon Communities. This will have no adverse effect on your enrollment at Maryland.
Yes, you will still be part of the Carillon Communities if you declare a major. However, by declaring a major your advising home will change. You will no longer receive advising from Letters and Sciences, but from your major's academic home.
Communities differ in size, but range between 20 – 60 students.
Carillon Communities students participating in Language, Once and Future Planet, Visualizing Knowledge and Weather and Climate will reside in Easton Hall. Students participating in Arts and Activism, iGive, Freedom Fighting, Free Speech, and Riots reside in Elkton Hall. To participate in University housing you MUST complete the Housing/Dining Services Agreement by May 1.
Every new first-year student who desires to live in campus residence halls MUST complete the Housing/Dining Services Agreement by May 1 to be eligible to live on campus. The housing agreement can be found at Resident Life.
No. Students are not required to live on campus to take part in the program.
The Carillon Communities program strongly encourages you to take an assignment with another Carillon student. We understand the importance of your roommate requests. Due to a variety of factors, roommate requests are never guaranteed. Resident Life will honor mutual roommate requests as space allows. You can submit that request via the Roommate Finder tool on the Housing Portal.